Page 4 - The Freckled Eye - Book

Chapter 1 – The Journey Begins December 2015

It was Christmas Eve day, my favorite time of year and my family (The
Reynolds) were up in Tahoe celebrating Christmas. It was a white Christmas,
everything I had always wished for. All of us together in the mountains, with
snow everywhere. Going to my dad and Linda's, in Tahoe, was a new
tradition we'd only started about 6 years before. The whole family would
come up. My dad (Grandpa Charlie) and stepmom Linda (Grandma Linda),
my mom Diane or Grandma Di, my brother, his wife Jill, my niece (Josie),

nephew (Charlie Max), wonderful Aunty Paula and me. This was an amazing gift
our family did, to be together.
My parents had been divorced many years before, so this was something "special" we
all did to be together as a family. My parents did it because they loved us that
much and I can’t thank them enough for it. This is one of the greatest gifts they've
gave us and I’m forever grateful and appreciative of that.
The snow had been extra good this year and Tahoe was the winter
wonderland I had always hoped for. Grandma Linda had the house decorated
perfectly. The food was top notch, with everything we loved, especially all my yummy
favorites. Grandma Linda always tried to make everything perfect for us and she did.

We’d been at Dad’s for a couple of days and had done all the fun snow
traditions. There was snow saucering, we made a snowman, played icicle
gun fights and did some of Grandma Di's (my mom) wacky fun games. We’d
done it all.

My nephew (Charlie Max) was 13 at the time. He wanted to get out and do
something fun and different. He suggested to go and play pool, knowing his
Aunty TT (that’s me) use to be somewhat of a pool shark. We’ll... maybe pool
shark is a bit exaggerated, but I did play in 9 ball tournaments when I was
younger and there isn’t a bar I can’t go into and not get free beers. So, I’d
say, I was good enough.

Anyway, my nephew wanted to play pool. So, while my step mom (Grandma
Linda) prepared Christmas Eve dinner, several of us stepped out for a little
pool time. I was really excited to play that day, even though I hadn’t played in
years. My nephew had been giving me all sorts of lip, as young teenagers do,
about how he was going to beat me. I thought to myself how excited I was, to
give him a little taste of old Auntie TT’s pool skills. At that point, several of us
jumped into the cars and headed down to the nearby pool hall by Dad’s cabin.